Author: Damn, there were alot of violent suggestions for Charles' death. You guys realize this story is still rated T right? Anyways those suggestions helped my creative juices flowing and I'm personally somewhat satisfied with Charles' death.

Saito: You've killed of alot of OCs you know that.

Author: This story has enough minor characters. Does it really matter if I kill off one or two?

Saito: I also noticed that's you're not updating as much as you used to.

Author: I know, school's starting again tomorrow, and I wont have as much time to write stories like I used to. :,(

Saito: Sucks to be you. Arn't I glad I got transported to another world where I don't have to go to school.

Author: Go fuck Julio you gay dog. Anyways enjoy the story and don't forget to read review and subscribe!

Alex felt as though he had barely been knocked out before he was shaken awake once again by a platoon of guards. Alex winced as he was dragged to his feet, expecting the usual bouts of agony from his back and was surprised to feel none. Alex realized that someone must have healed his wounds in preparation for his execution. He looked down to see that his wrists had been cuffed together by iron shackles that bound his hands before the guards roughly pushed him of the cell. He was taken through a series of corridors and staircases from the underground prison cells and out into the sun.

The light was blinding after several days in complete darkness and Alex shut his eyes completely in order to protect his eye sight as a reflex. Eventually after several moments Alex opened his eyes into a squint and was startled to see a large crowd of soldier around him. Alex was flanked by two large columns while he stood on a walkway leading up to a wooden execution platform in the middle of the courtyard. But they were not aggressive soldier with weapons coming to attack him as Alex was used to. It took Alex several moments of confusion to gauge their mood before he finally understood. They were spectators. Like tourists on their first vacations, these soldiers stared at him pushing and shoving each other to get the best view. The soldier pointed and made comments, unashamedly whispering amongst one another in hushed voices. The guards behind Alex prodded him onwards with the butts of their spears and Alex slowly walked along the walkway and on to the gallows.

The executioner, a burly man with broad shoulders and biceps the size of a normal person's thighs stood of to the side of the platform. As Alex walked up to the top of the elevated scaffold, Alex could see a Charles V at the very end of the courtyard in raised seats draped in purple silk looking particularly pleased with himself. Alex raised his constricted hands and flicked the bird at the man, one last act of defiance. After that a senior magistrate who, in Alex's opinion, wore more gold on him than you would normally see in a jewelry store, appeared from the crowd and walked on to the spot besides Charles V.

"Alexander Caesar," the man began, "You are hereby tried for your willful commission of crime against the crown. Those crimes being numerous in quantity and sinister in nature…"

As the magistrate began listing of each and every one of the crime he had committed, Alex inwardly groaned. If the magistrate went on any further he would die from boredom before they had the chance to execute him. Perhaps that was their goal. Sighing, Alex rolled his eyes and froze.

Up above the rooftops of the building around the square, Saito and Ney clumsily sneaked across the rafters. They were right above the heads of the soldier inside the courtyard, and should single one of them have bothered to look up, Alex knew they would by dead men within seconds. What the hell were they doing?

o0o

Several meters away, Marshal Ney more or less had the same thought as he tiptoed across the loose tiles of the building above the courtyard.

"Is this plan really going to work?" he hissed at the boy in front of him.

"Maybe." Saito answered uncertainly.

"Maybe!"

"It all depends on whether or not he recognizes the signal." Saito explained.

"And what if he doesn't recognize the signal?"

"Well, then we'll… improvise."

Ney swore quietly. "Yeah, that answer does not provide confidence."

"Oh come on. Stop being such a babbyyyyyyyy!" And that was when it happened. While he was distracted talking to Ney, one of the tiles underneath Saito slipped loose and Ney watched in silent horror as Saito, still screaming, tumbled down the side of the roof and onto a group of soldier below. Time seemed to stop as every soldier in the courtyard turned and stared in disbelief at Saito sitting on a small heap of enemy soldiers. Then, reality seemed to return as one amongst their ranks yelled, "Kill the intruder!" breaking the stillness of shock and as one the soldiers charged at Saito.

Seeing the mass of enemy soldiers charging in his direction Saito said "Oh Shit…ummm… IMPROVISE!"

From above, Ney fired a single blue flame into the air and jumped down to join the fray.

o0o

Hundreds of miles away one Andreas saw the blue signal, indicating that the mission had been failed and swore.

"Brimir damn it!" Andreas yelled. "I knew that stupid plan wouldn't work!"

Beside him Guiche shrugged. "Of course it didn't work. None of our plans actually work."

"That's why we carry wands." explained Malicorne.

"We can get the general before the attack! Just leave it to us!" Andreas said in a badly impersonated voice of Saito. "Why did I even listen to him?"

"I told you it was a bad idea." reminded Guiche.

"Yeah, well I stopped listening to you three days ago.

Malicorne frowned. "Well that's not very ni-"

"And I NEVER started listening TO YOU!"

Colbert stepped forward. "That's enough! We are wasting too much time here! What's important is what we do now."

Andreas nodded, conceding the professor's point. "We stick to the original plan. All units will proceed to their original attack designations. Code word is Tiger Storm!"

o0o

Back in the courtyard, Alex was one of the first to react as he slammed his wrist in to the executioners face and kicked his leg as hard as he could into his groin. The man shuddered from the pain and fell on his knees while clutching his genitals. Alex then placed the chains binding his wrists around the man's throat and pulled his arms back, snapping the executioner's neck. It seemed ironic, Alex thought, for an executioner to be killed at the gallows by the man he was supposed have hung himself. He mused at the thought for some time before noticing an enemy swordsman making his way up to the gallows.

The mercenary, for he wore the uniform of one, slashed his sword horizontally and Alex barely managed to duck in time, feeling the razor sharp blade grazed the back of his neck. Alex could've sworn the attack sliced off some his hair. The swordsman slashed again this time vertically, and Alex stepped back to avoid the attack but lifted his arms so that the slash of the sword cut through the chains that bound Alex's wrists. Losing his patience, the enemy soldier charged at Alex and Alex simply sidestepped out of the way while simultaneously grabbing the hangman's rope and placing the noose over the enemy's head.

The soldier choked as the rope snagged against his neck and struggled to get the rope off but it was already too late. Stepping back Alex pulled the lever, releasing the trapdoor underneath the soldier's feet and breaking his neck. All in all it was a good day for breaking necks, thought Alex as he picked up the abandoned sword.

Alex felt a strong gust of wind and looked up to see Saito blasting away several enemy mages with the powers of Gandolf while Ney fought his way through onto the platform.

"Thanks for the rescue!" Alex yelled over the ruckus. "But I hope it's not just the two of you!"

"General you know I always have a hand to play!"

"Or really? What hand is this?"

"Actually it's just a high card." admitted Ney while referring to the lowest hand in poker.

Alex swore and then stopped as he saw a flock of looming shadows race across the sky heading straight for them. At first Alex tensed fearing that they were gargoyles again. However as the figures loomed close, Alex's keen eyes could make out their features and he laughed out loud.

"It's the bomber squadrons." He yelled.

Formed less than a year ago, the armored bomber dragons were formed by Alexander himself out of a need for mobile firepower within the air. After the revolution many of the country's former nobility opted flee to neighboring nations leaving very few mages in the country. While almost all branches of the military was affected by the sudden displacements of power, none were more damaged then the dragons services. Since all Dragon knights were nobles, Albion as a republic was left with very few. Traditionally, dragon knights were comprised of mages whose summoned familiars happened to be dragons. Thus dragon divisions within most kingdoms were often small in numbers due to the rarity of tamed dragons. Because of their small numbers, it was commonly believed that Dragon Knights could never make any decisive factor in large battles and often they were used for scouting and brief skirmishes before the battle. Alexander revolutionized this concept however when he proposed that the Albion Air Force tame the wild dragons of Albion in order to replace their previous numbers. Though people were skeptical at first, with the use of specific magical spells and techniques, the dragons were tamed in to service and soon the Albion Air Force was the largest on the continent. Furthermore, Dragon Knights were almost always heavily armored while their mounts often only wore harnesses and saddles giving them little protection. Alexander had argued that heavily armored riders only made it difficult for them to see through their thick visors and prevented them from moving efficiently on dragon back. Now the Dragon Riders only wore a steel cuirass to protect their chest while their heads was bear giving them full visibility of the air. Instead the dragons themselves were equipped with steel chest plates and chainmail that could block small arms fire from the enemy. While riders were easy to replace, dragons themselves were not, therefore making them more valuable assets to the country. Alexander also added one last innovation to the dragons. Each republican dragon was armed with hollow tubes below each wing. These tubes could be filled with a variety of antipersonnel weapons such as grenades, flammable liquids or even acid.

Now these armored beasts ran strafing runs against the Germanian position, scattering their ranks with deadly explosives. Some of the dragons breathed fire on to the buildings, scorching the earth and wood black with their flames. Beyond the destruction and flying debris, Alex could see white sails looming against the sky. The Albion Navy.

Alex turned to Ney and grinned. "Just goes to show that you should never give in before you see the flop marshal!"

Ney smiled back before asking "Where's Charles?" indicating towards the empty chair.

Alex shrugged. "He must have ran…I'll find him.

Though elated by the rescue, Alex could not help but feel as though he was forgetting something important. What came next made Alex want to kick himself. Cattleya! Smoke was rising from the direction of main house and Alex remembered with consternation that it was the exact building where Cattleya was being kept.

Alex started a dead run towards the burning building when Ney caught his arm. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

Alex ignored him, jerking loose and ran on. All he could think was: Let her be safe! Let her be safe! Let her be safe!

As he ran, he looked over to see an enemy soldier running right beside him. He stared at Alex and Alex stared back at him. If there was a conversation it would have gone along the lines of, "Hey there." "Hey." "Aren't you going to fight me?" "Aren't you?" "Fuck it." That was the general attitude amongst the Germanian soldiers in the face of the Albion attack as many of them simply threw down their weapons and fled to safety.

Alex continued to make his way towards the building and slammed his shoulder into the flaming door. The heat burned some of his skin but Alex didn't care. As Alex ran deeper in to the mansion, the smoke filled his eyes and they began watering.

"Cattleya!" he screamed desperately, "Cattleya!"

Somewhere in the back he heard muffled voice cry out, "Alex!"

Alex ran towards the source of voice and tried to open the door from where the sound had originated from only to find it locked. Swearing Alex kicked the door but to no avail. The roars and crackling of the fire was getting louder and burning timbers were crashing down around him.

"Alex!" Cattleya screamed again.

"Hold on!" Alex took the sword he had picked up and slammed in between the hinges of the door. Then he pushed all his weight on to the handle creating a lever. The door seemed to moan in protest before finally giving way and splinters flew out from the door that crashed into the floor.

Alex walked in to find Cattleya standing in the center of the room looking as gorgeous as the day Alex had met her. She was dressed in a beautifully cut white gown. It was a simple design that belied its stylishness while it set off her voluptuous curves to perfection. Alex didn't even bother thinking about that as he grabbed her wrist.

"We have to go!" he yelled.

Alex looked over his shoulder and found the door blocked by flames, then walked over to the window and pushing it open. By now, the cinders and embers were falling like snow. Alex picked up Cattleya by the waist and leaped out the window hearing the timber crashing down and the flames roaring right behind him.

They landed as a heap on the bushes while the house crashed down upon itself, now no more than a wreck of burning wood.

Alex painfully got up and took Cattleya by the shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Cattleya was still coughing and sobbing for breath. It subsided after a while and she looked up at Alex strangely. "Why did you come for me?"

"Why? Why?" Alex soon found himself tongue tied and thus unable to find the right words to answer her question he simply leaned over and kissed her. She stiffened at first in surprise but after only a few seconds she returned the gesture and their lips began moving passionately against each other. After several moments they pulled apart and Alex finally said, "Because I love you."

The words had slipped out of his mouth before he even had a chance to think twice and Alex realized it was the plain and honest truth. He felt a sudden relief within his chest as he made the confession, almost as if he had been holding his breath before.

Cattleya drew her head back and looked within his eyes. "Alexander," she murmured, "my…Alexander."

Around them, Rangers were already rappelling off their ships and taking their positions in the strategic locations of the enemy camp. Alex wished he could have indulged for a few more minutes but he knew better.

"Can you stand?" he asked standing up.

"I…I think so…Ouch!"

"What is it?"

"I think I sprained my ankle."

Rangers were beginning to approach them and Alex carefully scooped up Cattleya in his arms, bridal style.

"You there!" he snapped, indicating towards the nearest Ranger. "Take Miss Valliere up to the infirmary ward on the Freedom."

Saluting, the ranger carried Cattleya over his shoulder while she looked a question at Alex.

"I'll come see you as soon as this is over." He promised.

"Of course," she said mischievously, "You don't get away from me that easily Alex."

Alex smiled. "Well, I guess I'll see you then, then." He said before realizing how stupid that phrasing sounded.

Cattleya waved at him adorably while the Ranger carried her away while Alex allowed himself to enjoy the moment a little longer before turning away and letting his expression turn grim. Now it was time for business.

o0o

The sun had already begun setting when Charles V was discovered in a suite of rooms hung with silk and priceless tapestries. It took six men to batter down the door of bronze and gold to reveal Charles V cowering behind his bed. As Alex walked in, Charles raised a fist revealing a purple ring. The purple gem glowed with magic as Charles tried to draw upon its strength but he was too slow. Alex lunged across the room and grabbed the ring with both hands, wrenching it off Charles' fingers in a single fluid motion while breaking his fingers in the process. Screaming in terror, Charles scrambled across in to the corner of the room trying to shrink his oversized body in to the corner while Alex examined the ring curiously.

Charles V must have known then that it was over and drew a dagger to try to take his own life. Alex sheathed his sword and crossed his arms to watch in amusement. In his haste however, Charles let the blade slip within his sweaty hands and merely scored a line in his throat. Impatient, Alex walked over took hold of the man's fleshy hand over the hilt and slowly guided it back to his neck a second time. Charles V lost his nerve and tried to struggle, but Alex's grip was far too strong and he slowly drew the dagger across, stepping back as blood spurted out and the man flailed to death.

Alex looked dispassionately at the corpse before saying, "It's over. It's finally over."